Good Night
by Childe
Summary: Post 4th War. Sasuke is Prisoner Nro. 6. Sai is ANBU captain Rat. They are sent on a mission to find a dead body. SaiSasu. Romance without the romance.


I

In a prison cell that resided deep beneath the bustling village of Konohagakure, Prisoner Nro. 6 slept in fitful intervals, still as death under the thin white blanket, until he inevitably awoke with a gasp. He was also known as Uchiha Sasuke, a man of twenty-two, a clansman by birth, who had once dreamed as a child of succeeding his father as the head of the police.

He had a handsome, hawkish face, unhappy and reflective like the dark surface of a lake. His large, flinty eyes were black and glassy. Sasuke was most beautiful when he showed the least amount of emotion, for his grimaces and smirks were strange and abnormal, the delicate lines forming along his skin revealing too much of what he had witnessed of the dark and ugly side of humanity. In his younger days, his young and boyish features had been at odds with the manly, mature presence he exuded. Time had corrected this error; his face morphing into something that was characterized by distinctive cheekbones and a prominent, narrow jaw which were further enunciated by the cropped short hair style he was forced to wear in prison.

The prison clothes Sasuke had become accustomed to wearing over the years chafed around his neck and happened to be the same shade of glaringly bright orange that was Naruto's trademark color. The narrow cut had originally settled upon Sasuke's shoulders uncomfortably, but over time he wore it as proudly as any other piece of clothing he had owned in his life. In a strange way, it suited him.

Similarly, prison life had settled upon his features in a subtle yet noticeable way. There was a calm to Sasuke that had eluded him for many years and could only be achieved when one was completely removed from the happenings of the world. There were few distractions in his spacious cell that held no doors or windows and was lit by a single incandescent light bulb that never switched off. The walls were painted dirty blue and the floor was stony grey. All the furniture – the bed, the table and chair, the toilet with a sink – were bolted to the floor. The air was damp and still, heavy to breath in, and whiffed of sour cabbage.

Sasuke passed time by reading books and exercising. Sometimes he would stand still for hours in the middle of the room engaged in mental exercise. Eyes closed, sweat rolling down his torso, Sasuke imagined thousands of opponents attacking him. A slow breath. The flutter of eyelids. A foot slid forward, its sole hardened by the rough, cold flooring. As he shifted through air in slow, flowing movement, Sasuke's shadow danced along with him as he raised a palm to strike an invisible enemy or executed a high kick that was a near perfect split.

To all appearances, Prisoner Nro. 6 was in complete control of himself, calm and centered.

Our dear reader may be wondering how a ninja of Uchiha Sasuke's caliber ended up in prison. The events leading up to his case were peculiar and well known amongst us who walked the prison's well-lit web of corridors. The man who killed Konoha's most dangerous and powerful - Orochimaru the Snake Sannin, Uchiha Itachi, Danzou of the Root, Uchiha Madara. The missing-nin who fought on the Allies side during the Fourth Shinobi World War. Uchiha Sasuke had paid his due to society.

As it was, Sasuke's public trial was a complete farce. While the prosecutor went into great pains to show Sasuke guilty of a long and impressive list of crimes the missing-nin had made against the Shinobi Nations, the accused stood by, nodding along and appearing amused. When it was the defense's turn, Sasuke threw the court for a loop when he admitted to every single crime, called no witnesses and offered no evidence whatsoever to support his plea for 'not guilty'. "There has rarely been a case as clear as this," the judge had declared, "You must find him guilty." After seven minutes of discussion, the court assembled once again and Uchiha Sasuke was declared not guilty. The public was appeased and the following night ANBU came and arrested Sasuke. He was sentenced to five years in confinement for the attempted murder of all the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Nations during the summit in the Land of Iron. Sasuke was docile as a lamb when they escorted him away.

Our story begins some three years later, on a silent night, filled with calm breaths, deep thoughts and a masked shinobi in a white cloak. The apparition materialized in Sasuke's cell and stood to his full height, the white face of a smiling rat looking down at the convict who lay in bed, facing the wall as if asleep, arms with nail bitten fingers wrapped around his upper body.

"If you take one step closer, you might just find yourself without a head.".

The shinobi spoke, his voice muffled and distorted into a low rasp. "You have been summoned."

Sasuke turned around. His head held low, he slowly made to stand on his feet. There was something thick and clunky - some sort of shackles - gripping around his bare wrists, ankles and neck that appeared to weigh down on his limbs like dead weight. Yet the next moment Sasuke appeared behind the ANBU captain in a blink of an eye, body pressed flush against the ninja's back, the man's own tanto pressed against his neck.

"Are you trying to scare me?" the ANBU asked hollowly.

A little smile played on Sasuke's lips. "Is it working?"

Sasuke felt the ANBU calmly move his right arm, but before he could fully guess the motive behind the action, the man firmly gripped Sasuke's crotch.

"Hmm …You've got balls. I like you."

"Fuck off," Sasuke said coolly, stony-faced.

"Careful. Or you might just find yourself without a 'head' too." He gave a squeeze. "You'll need this in the future I suspect."

"And you won't be here to see the future." The blade glinted in the electric lighting as it cut deeper into the man's throat. Instead of red blood, dark-blue liquid slid along the blade and dripped on the floor.

'How strange,' thought Sasuke.

"How strange …" the ANBU voiced.

"... What is?"

"It's not rising."

It took a second for Sasuke to realize what the ANBU was referring to. "Obviously," he said scorningly. In a flash, he cut the shinobi's throat open. In that instant, person, or actually clone - along with the tanto in Sasuke's hand – turned into a pool of ink that splashed onto the ground and coloured the hems of his orange garb blue.

From a corner of the room the smiling mask of a rat looked on. Sasuke turned to regard him.

"If we're quite done playing around," the ANBU drew out a scroll that had a seal on it. "I have to escort you to your meeting with the Hokage."


End file.
